Which AC?
One simple Answer : "Your closest and the best service
dealer"
About my research on Air conditioners :
Almost all the air conditioner Manufacturers use the same
technology as the other. I am not here to tell about the technicalities of the
AC's available in the market but to give you the reality of what can happen
after you purchase it.
I can shortlist some of the good AC's that are available in the market like(Click on the links below to know the model)
1) LG
2) Daiken
3) Bluestar
4) Voltas
5) Samsung
6) Godrej
but it all depends where you live and where you are going to buy it. About
myself, i live in Bangalore and i went to different retail stores
like Pai International, Croma, Girias, Samsung. And i ended up buying nothing
out of these stores. And then i looked out for something online Flipkart, Shopclue,
Junglee....even that efforts went in vain. Finally i went into a voltas store
and made a deal out of it.
How?
Three major factors:
1) Closest one.
2) Suggestions of which one to go with.
3) Service & warranty after purchase.
1) Closest one:
The outlet was located very close by my home (less than 1km).
Which can be a big plus because even if the phone is not ringing for the
support, you can take a small walk and bring the service guy immediately.
2) Suggestions of which one to go with :
The Sales guy(actually the owner) from Voltas gave a very good
option after listening to my requirement and it worked. I could not find this
in any other outlet.
The only question
when i walked into other outlets was "What is the size of the room?"
That's it, no other questions. And they simply suggest the customers with what
they would receive most commission. But in case of the voltas outlet. He
asked me the following questions
1) what is the size of the room?
2) How many hours the Ac would run in a day?
3) How many people would be using the room?
4) What is the height of the room?
Because all of these factors affect the budget and the performance
of the AC.
Size of the room is
one of the factors to decide the tonnage of the AC (it starts with 0.5 ton to 5
tons) depending upon your requirement. Normally, for a 100sq.ft(10*10) room
1 ton AC is enough. Similarly it increases with the increase in the
size of the room.
How many hours the Ac would run in a day : If its less than 6 hours then its better to go with a 3 star rated Ac than a 5 star. It again depends on your budget. If you have the initial investment of 8-10k more then better to go with a 5 star rated Ac.
How many people would be using the room is other most important factor
because the body temperature of every individual in a room plays a big
role in operation of the AC. For a 10*10 room with 7-8 people, 1 ton AC will
not be enough as
it takes longer for the AC to bring down the temperature to the required level,
the power consumption goes up and the operation efficiency will come down.
Even a 5 star rated AC will not do the job of getting the Electricity
bill down because the AC will be in operational mode for the whole day.
In this case, the only option is go with more tonnage AC like 1.5
or 2 ton with a 3 or 5 star rating.
What is the height of the room? This again is a important thing to consider, the vertical and the horizontal movement of air, most of the Ac's available in the market only have horizontal movement of air. Daikin is the best when it comes to this technology.
3.Service & warranty after purchase : Most of the outlets out there give
a 3-5 yr warranty on the compressor. But, how many of them will stand up
to their promises. Unlike, what i think is if you have a good relationship with
the dealer/ outlet you are going purchase, they can help you giving a free
service even after the warranty is expired. Definitely, it happened in my case,
where there was a freeze in the refridgerant which was not covered under
warranty for a more than a year but i got a free service otherwise it would
have costed me more than 3000/-.
About Installation :
One more important thing is the installation of the AC, you can
get it from online or offline but please call up the customer center of the
corresponding company to do the installations. Even though you end up spending
a bit extra , that will be totally worth on a long run without any troubles.
Because the local installers will not know as much as the company people.
Verdict : Choose which ever AC you want online or offline or you can even pick one from the top, but check for the best service guys in your locality for a particular company(it can be LG, Samsung or any).
